Week of giant killing performances

It was a week of giant killing performances with under rated teams recording victories over more fancied teams. The best of the outright wins was the routing of DSS by Royal Panadura who won comfortably by ten wickets in the match played at the Panadura Esplanade.

Benedictine batsman Madura Madusanka in action this week. (Pic by Ranjith Perera )

The other big outright win was achieved by Prince of Wales who recorded a stunning seven wicket win over St Peter’s whom they beat after a lapse of ten years. In the other outright wins recorded during the week Trinity coasted to their sixth outright win for the season when they defeated the hapless Sri Sumangala Panadura side by an innings.

Dharmasoka MV Ambalangoda too are having a fruitful season this year as they coasted to their fourth outright win of the season with a convincing six wicket win over Kalutara MV at Ambalangoda.
Ananda recorded their third win of the season when they got the better of Maliyadeva whom they outclassed by ten wickets at Kurunegala while Dharmaraja Kandy and De Mazenod Kandana too recorded outright wins over Mahinda and Revatha MMV Balapitiya.

Gurukula MV Kelaniya too are in fine form as they registered back to wins with the latest being an innings win over Revatha MMV who underwent their second successive defeat within one week.
The match between Royal Panadura and DSS was surprisingly almost a one sided game with the boys from Panadura dominating the proceedings on both the days.

They bowled out the confident DSS team who took the game easily to a low score of just 120 and in their turn put up an imposing sore of 263. DSS batting the second time put in another pathetic batting display, though they managed to avert the follow on with a score 138 they gave their opponents a target of just four runs for victory.The hero of Prince of Wales was the 14 year old Thilan Nimesh who mesmerized the Peterite batsmen as he ended up with a match bag of 9 for 126 with Shanuka Dulaj and Kusal Mendis doing the needful in the batting department.It was cakewalk for the Trinity in their match against Sri Sumangala Panadura as the Kandy boys were home for tea while Dharmasoka MV came back after conceding a first inning lead to Kalutara MV to turntables and record a six wicket win.
Ananda skipper Pasindu Madushan was the toast of the side as he ended with an impressive match bag figure of 12 for 71 to guide his side to a ten wicket victory. Pasindu this season is going great guns as he has been with the wickets in almost most of the matches that they have played.

Gurukula MV playing in the top division for the first time are having a whale of a time. Since they stunned S. Thomas’ two weeks back they have been consistent there after. In the other matches played Thurstan had a narrow shave against St Benedict’s who made 311 with half tons coming from Madura Madusanka and Janindu Karunatileke were sitting pretty on the first day. Thurstan after being shot out for 91 and with defeat staring at their face fought back to force a draw thanks to some sensible batting by Ramindu Kumarasinghe who made an unbeaten 104.

DSS before undergoing an outright defeat to Royal Panadura registered a first inning win over Isipathana and the other teams to record first innings were Thurstan against Mahanama, St Anthony’s Katugastota against Prince of Wales, Isipathana over St Benedict’s and St Sevatius Matara over fancied Nalanda. In the lower division S de S. Jayasinghe MMV Dehiwala is the school to have recorded the most number of outright wins this season so far. The two wicket win over Dharmapala Kottawa saw them recording their tenth outright win for the season.

The other schools to record outright wins in the lower division were St Mary’s Kegalle who won two matches, President’s Kotte, Piliyandala Central, Kingswood, Devapathiraja MMV Rathgama and Sri Jayawardenapura MV Kotte.

Another outstation schoolboy cricketer Udeeptha Balasuriya of Ibbagamuwa Central had the honour of achieving the milestone of becoming the first to score over 1000 runs which he achieved in the match against St Mary’s Kegalle.

Udeeptha’s feat came from 11 matches that he played this season. Earlier it was it was another boy Hashan Hewanayke from lesser known school S de S. Jayasinghe MMV Dehiwala who was the first take 100 wickets this season.